[Angostura]

> The fact that standard PDFs are difficult to edit is more of an accident than a feature, as PDF’s roots are in printing, where only final-form documents needed to be transmitted.

I disagree with this - I was an IT journalist when PDFs came out and all the blurb at the time was centred around the advantage of being able to create a document and know that it could be displayed by anyone, irrespective of machine, OS etc while retaining visual fidelity.

PDF only became a thing in the print production world quite a bit later. For many years, you were making sure your printer got the QuarkXpress Files and all the high-res asset files collected together into a single folder and zipped up.

[tonyedgecombe]

PDF was based on PostScript, a system that was created for digital printers. The big selling point of PostScript was that your output would look the same whether you were printing on an Apple LaserWriter or a Linotype.

[Angostura]

Indeed. Postscript is great for printers. The fact that the PDF was created in addition was because a comparable system was needed for human eyeballs.